Georgia’s coast is home to one of the busiest ports in the U.S. in the Port of Savannah (third or fourth busiest depending on where you are looking) but also some of the most unspoiled and best-preserved coastal ecosystems on the Atlantic coast. This is thanks to a number of reasons – robber baron interest in coastal getaways is a historical quirk that was hugely helpful to its preservation – but also the dedication of coastal residents and government advocates.
Each year, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources issues a report card on the state of the coastal ecosystem. This year’s score on the card was characterized as a “moderately good” 74 percent, a B on the DNR’s scale. The report measures a number of indicators that serve as keystones for the health of the coast, mostly animals like sea turtles, shrimp or bald eagles, but also bacteria and oxygen levels.
“The annual Coastal Georgia Ecosystem Report Card is an important tool for understanding the state of our coastal environment and the impact of our actions on it,” said Jan Mackinnon, a program manager with DNR’s Coastal Resources Division who oversees the report’s compilation. “We hope that this report will inspire individuals, organizations, and governments to take action to conserve and protect our valuable coastal resources.”
Items to highlight include a sea turtle index score of 87%, with a perfect 100 percent nesting score. Sea turtle hatching improved 14 points from last year, up from 59 percent to 73 percent thanks to the absence of major storms and human intervention on nest protection and predator management. Also, the DNR added more than 24,000 acres of conserved land to the Ceylon Wildlife Management Area in Camden County.
Water quality scores were an “A” at 86 percent. Strong water quality redounds across the system, but most directly it means the water is safe for swimming and to eat local shellfish. Georgia’s oyster industry is still in relative infancy – oyster farming was only legalized four years ago – but continued water quality improvements is good news for continued growth.
“Of note this year, we saw increases in the quality of water, along with sea turtle hatching,” said Mackinnon. However, the news was not all good, illustrated by a drop in the overall score. Mackinnon noted however that there are particular reasons for the drop in some category scores that caused the drop in the overall score.
“The overall scores for this year of ‘B’ is slightly down from last year’s ‘A-,’ and we can attribute that to a marked drop in the blue crab score within the report’s Fisheries Index and bald eagle-related scores. This drop in scores is likely due to estuary salinity changes caused by decreased rainfall in locations where DNR biologist sample blue crabs,” Mackinnon continued. “While these sampling locations stay the same, the blue crabs migrate to different parts of the estuary seeking favorable salinity and water conditions. This movement of the blue crab populations can have an impact on the overall report card score.”
To see the full report from the DNR, go here
